Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Ashdown Dual-Band: The features of this pedal have a strong resemblance to the Trace Elliot SMX. That's not too surprising, since one or two former TE engineers went to work for Ashdown around the time this pedal was developed. Initial reviews of the Ashdown version were not so good because it only worked with low-output passive basses -anything with hotter output would cause the Ashdown to distort. However, they later redesigned this pedal so the newer ones are compatible with active basses. It is able to sound quite good actually, but only at certain settings. The controls include separate compression amounts for the low and high bands, and a tilting EQ to either cut highs and boost lows, or vice versa. But in my opinion it only sounds good if the two bands are set to the same compression amount, and the EQ is set flat; so I wish they had left the extra controls off and used a smaller chassis. The compression level controls are confusing because turning one of them counterclockwise seems to roll off the signal of that frequency range, instead of just reducing the amount of compression. So they seem to be actually "boost" gain controls, increasing the level of your signal into a fixed threshold as you turn the knobs clockwise. The Punch Factory works the same way. I don't like it, it's counterintuitive and liable to confuse anyone who is just starting out with compression.
 
The EQ knob is pretty intense- very small adjustments yield lots of EQ change, and the only time it sounded good to me was either flat, or with a very slight tilt to the bass side. I wish it had a center detent, or could be bypassed. Another gripe is the VU meter: it "works", but it is inaccurate and mostly just decorative. But I said this pedal could sound quite good, right? Yes- set both bands of compression to 2:00 or higher and the EQ knob at 12:00, and the tone is clear and full, with fairly low noise and very little rolloff of highs or lows. In fact it sounds big and fat in the low-mids. Setting both bands to max compression is a very strong modern sound (perhaps a bit artificial), and the max setting is actually not a very high ratio; I'd bet it's 8:1 like the Trace SMX. The fixed attack time is kind of slow, at least on the low band, so if you play slap, a lot of your spiky hits will still get through and clip your amp. This pedal is better suited to light/moderate compression. The footswitch was true bypass on the unit I tested, but I have read other reviews saying it was not tbp, so who knows what you may get?
 

 
 
All text on this page written and owned by Cyrus J. Heiduska, 2006-2010, all rights reserved.
Copying is prohibited, but please feel free to link to this page using the link text "compressor reviews".